Abstract

Background: Black currant (Ribes nigrum L. Grossulariceae) promotes good health. A lot of researches have been carried out on common fruits but little attention is given to indigenous fruits such as Ribes nigrum which promotes good health with its high content of phytochemicals that influences its antioxidant activity in neutralizing free radicals as well as its iron chelating property.

Aim of this Study: To compare the phytochemical composition, iron-chelating and the free radical scavenging activity of fresh Ribes nigrum and Nutraceutical C24/7.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Nasarawa State, Nigeria between June 2017 and January 2019.

Methodology: Fleshy parts of fresh Ribes nigrum fruit was homogenized using an electrical blender and was macerated with70% ethanol (Sigma Aldrich, 99.8%) for 72 hours and then filtered. The filtrate was condensed using a rotary evaporator and the extract was stored at 4°C. Preliminary phytochemical screening was carried out on the extract and the nutraceutical C24/7 caplets using standard procedures and the identified phytochemicals: saponins, tannins, alkaloids and steroids were quantitatively estimated. Iron chelating and total antioxidant activity assay was conducted using the DPPH radical scavenging and spectrophotometric methods respectively on the extract and the nutraceutical C24/7. Values were analyzed using One way analysis of Variance (ANOVA).Values of P<0.05 were considered significant.

Results and Conclusion: The findings of this study show that the hydro-ethanol extract of Ribes nigrum contains a large amount of flavonoids, saponins tannins, alkaloids and steroids compounds and exhibits iron chelating and high antioxidant (free radical scavenging) activity compared to nutraceutical-C24/7 caplets.